Giving Is Real Living

Founders of the Mak Minah Project, Sara and Ayu, share why they started this project to help homeless families

- Stephanie DeSouza

Sara Sukor is a mother of two while Ayu Abdullah is a mother of one. Both women love helping others. Even before The Mak Minah Project was launched, both Sara and Ayu had already established their own non-profit organisations separately.

Sara was running soup kitchens in urban areas while Ayu, who came from a research engineering background, started an outfit similar to her previous work experience.

Every Thursday, Ayu volunteers at Sara’s soup kitchen, where they often meet homeless families together (whom they also refer to as street clients). Both Sara and Ayu feel that one of the hardest things is to see families go to their soup kitchen weekly to get food for their kids.

They also visited the homes of street clients, which were often just rooms in shop lots that were in terrible condition, not at all conducive for children.

“That’s not the way for kids to grow up,” says Sara. “It’s an environment where drug addicts are everywhere and people sleep on the streets. They would be influenced by other kids who do not go to school and not focus on their education. Their only role models would be their parents who have to go to soup kitchens every night and work for daily paid jobs.”